FUN FACT OF THE MONTH…

40 million years.

While petrification of a fossil will begin right away, agatization of a fossil takes at least 40 million years. The fossilizing material must be encapsulated in a mud flow, ash flow, a pyroclastic flow. Bacteria must be suffocated and water saturated with silica has to be contained as to surround the material in a way that there is more coming in than flowing away from the material for a fossil to agatize.

South Korea.

An excavation team worker recreates how an octopus helped lead archeologists to a major find of ancient porcelain buried under the sea for centuries in this undated handout released by the National Maritime Museum in Mokpo, South Korea.
CLICK THE IMAGE TO READ ABOUT THIS FIND

TREASURE HUNTING

UPDATE

The battle between the Florida based treasure recovery company Odyssey Marine Exploration and the Spanish Government seems to be becoming deeper than the shipwreck itself.

The wreck, which has been code named “black swan” by the finding company, has reaped coins and artifacts totaling at least 5 million dollars. It was found during what Odyssey purports was a legally permitted hunt for a British war ship. The identity of the ship they actually found has either not yet been determined or has just not been disclosed, and the location of the wreck has not been revealed by Odyssey yet. Odyssey has shipped treasure from the wreck (over 500,000 silver coins, hundreds of gold coins, and artifacts) back to America and claims that the wreck is not in Spanish waters and is not sovereign to Spain. Spain claims it is and claims other rights of ownership.

Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm examines coins recovered from the “Black Swan” shipwreck with a member of the conservation team

The visible coins in the foreground of this image are conserved coins
from the “Black Swan” and have been reduced to a lower resolution so that the details
cannot be discerned. The buckets in the photo all contain un-conserved coins from the
shipwreck. The weights in Kilos visible on the buckets reference the weight of the coins in
each bucket, and they are different because each bucket contains the contents of one chest
of coins. They have been kept separate as an archaeological protocol in order to study the
practices for packing and loading of the coins.

Tampa, FL – July 12, 2007 –

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:OMEX) survey vessel, the Ocean Alert, has been forced by the Spanish Guardia Civil to the port of Algeciras for inspection despite assurances yesterday from Spanish judicial authorities that the ship was only to be inspected at sea and would not be taken into a Spanish port. At this point, Odyssey is assuming that the action on the part of the Guardia Civil is a miscommunication between Spanish authorities.

Spanish Guardia Civil patrol boat

Odyssey’s Panama-flagged ship Ocean Alert was boarded by the Spanish Guardia Civil this morning approximately 3.5 miles south of Europa Point in Gibraltar, which is considered international waters pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention. After boarding the ship, the Guardia Civil went to the ship’s bridge and threatened the Captain of the ship with the use of force if he did not turn the ship around and take it to the Spanish port of Algeciras. The ship has now arrived in Algeciras, and an inspection of the vessel has commenced. An Odyssey representative has been informed that the inspection may take as long as two to three days, and it is anticipated that the vessel will be permitted to leave at the conclusion of the inspection.

The day before the planned departure, Odyssey legal representatives met with the Guardia Civil and the La Linea judge to inform them of the planned time of departure for the Ocean Alert from Gibraltar and to arrange a location for a consensual boarding and inspection at sea in international waters. Although Odyssey has never received a Spanish court order to inspect or seize Company vessels, it has been reported by the Spanish media that a judge in the Court of La Linea de la Concepcion (Cadiz) had issued such an order, apparently assuming that the “Black Swan” recovery was conducted illegally in Spanish territorial waters, which had been reported erroneously in the media. Odyssey has repeatedly stated that the “Black Swan” recovery was conducted in the Atlantic Ocean outside of any country’s territorial waters or contiguous zone.

Odyssey recently provided a 109-page legal affidavit to authorities in the Spanish Federal government, the Junta de Andalucia, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, and the United States detailing Odyssey’s activities leading up to, and after, the announcement of the “Black Swan” discovery. This document (which covered nine years of communications and meetings between Odyssey, the Junta of Andalucia and the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain) was provided in order to address questions posed by the Spanish regarding Odyssey’s activities and to reassure all concerned governments and officials that Odyssey has always acted legally and with full transparency in relation to the “Black Swan” project and in all other shipwreck exploration activities.

“We were pleased to provide this information to the interested government officials to help clear up any confusion that has been created by inaccurate media reports,” stated Greg Stemm, Odyssey co-founder. “We always attempt to work with appropriate governments on shipwreck projects in which they may have an interest and look forward to addressing any issues of claims or legal jurisdiction related to the “Black Swan” in the proper venue, which is US Federal Court.”

In addition to providing the detailed 109-page affidavit, Odyssey announced last week that it will provide additional information as requested by Spain to the U.S. Federal Court judge later this month. This additional information will contain archaeological reports and additional information on three deep-ocean sites located outside the territorial waters of any country on which Odyssey properly filed Warrants of Arrest in the U.S. Federal Court sitting in admiralty jurisdiction. These reports are expected to be filed on or before July 23, 2007 with the U.S. Federal Court, which has assumed jurisdiction over the sites.

Odyssey’s Remotely Operated Vehicle is recovered from the seabed after recovering coins from a Colonial period shipwreck

Tampa, FL – July 23, 2007 –

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX) today filed Motions for an Extension of Time to file its responses to Claimant, Spain’s, Motions for More Definite Statements filed in the three admiralty arrests which Odyssey currently has pending at the U.S. District Court that has assumed jurisdiction over the sites.

Odyssey filed these motions primarily as a result of the unexpected seizure and detention of Odyssey’s survey vessel Ocean Alert by the Spanish Guardia Civil from July 12 through 18. Among other items, the Guardia Civil confiscated confidential attorney/client privileged documents as well as a laptop computer belonging to one of Odyssey’s attorneys which also contained attorney/client privileged information relative to the documents being prepared for the court. To date the Guardia Civil has not yet released the hard drive of the attorney’s laptop.

The detention also required two of Odyssey’s lawyers to travel to Algeciras to deal with the legal issues there. The rest of Odyssey’s legal team and in-house counsel have been working on issues related to the illegal boarding including flag state rights. As a result, Odyssey requested additional time to prepare its responses, but the Spanish Government refused. Consequently, Odyssey filed a motion with all three Judges in all three cases citing last week’s extraordinary events and requesting more time for the preparation of additional pleadings.

“Since Spain’s request, our team has been diligently working on Odyssey’s responses to Spain’s Motions for More Definite Statements in all three cases,” said Melinda MacConnel, Esq., Odyssey’s General Counsel. “Unfortunately, our legal team’s focus was pulled away from this work by the recent illegal seizure and detention of the Ocean Alert and the continued blockade of our other vessel, the Odyssey Explorer. If the Spanish officials had abided by the terms of the inspection of the vessel which had been agreed to in advance, we would have had time last week to complete our responses. We had arranged for a compliant boarding with both the Judge in La Linea and the Guardia Civil but were frankly caught off guard when they reneged on the agreement and forcefully seized our vessel.”

Tampa, FL – July 26, 2007 –

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX) was granted two of the three Motions for an Extension of Time to file its responses to the Kingdom of Spain’s Motions for More Definite Statements in the three admiralty arrests which Odyssey currently has pending at the U.S. District Court that has assumed jurisdiction over the sites. The third Motion has not yet been ruled on as the presiding Judge is currently in trial for several more days. The Company’s responses to the first two Motions are now due on August 6, 2007.

Odyssey filed these Motions primarily as a result of the illegal seizure and detention of Odyssey’s survey vessel Ocean Alert by the Spanish Guardia Civil from July 12 through 18 during which the Guardia Civil confiscated confidential attorney/client privileged documents as well as a laptop computer belonging to one of Odyssey’s attorneys. The ship was released when no evidence of wrongdoing was discovered, but the hard drive of the attorney’s laptop has not been returned.

— Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ: OMEX) filed Amended Complaints on August 6, 2007 in three Admiralty arrest cases in response to Spain’s Motions for More Definite Statements. The Company also filed Motions for Protective Order in all three cases to protect the confidentiality of the Preliminary Site Assessments, which include detailed information about the archaeological and exploration activities at the sites to date, and filed Motions for Preliminary Injunction in two of the cases.

As part of the amended complaints, the Kingdom of Spain has been added as a defendant in all three cases, with Odyssey seeking compensation for losses sustained through Spain’s recent actions obstructing Odyssey’s ability to conduct operations. Odyssey is seeking not only relief in the form of a set-off of any award Spain may ultimately receive on any shipwreck, but also affirmative relief for damages caused by Spain’s interference with Odyssey’s rights to all three sites. In its pleadings Odyssey refers to the activities in Spain during the past months regarding the illegal boarding and seizure of Odyssey’s survey vessel, the Ocean Alert and the continued illegal effective blockade of the Company’s archaeological recovery vessel, the Odyssey Explorer.

The Motions for Protective Order were filed to keep the preliminary site assessments under court seal to protect the security of the sites and to protect Odyssey’s proprietary sources and methods from competitors. The motion requests that before providing the information contained in the reports to Spain, the Court require Spain’s counsel and the Spanish authority taking control over the information to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. Among the reasons for this request is a history of repeated leaks of confidential information from some Spanish government agencies and the fact that Spain’s counsel, James Goold, is the Chairman of an organization, the RPM Nautical Foundation, which is a potential competitor to Odyssey in the provision of underwater archaeological services to Government agencies.

“As demonstrated by the 109 page affidavit submitted last month to authorities, Odyssey has always practiced a policy of transparency and open communication with all governments interested in our deep ocean archaeological activities. We have invited the Kingdom of Spain to participate in our archaeological projects many times in the past, including the expedition that resulted in the discovery of the Black Swan site. We have made it abundantly clear that in each of the three pending cases, we did not operate in waters claimed by Spain, and that we have abided by all applicable legal requirements as set forth in the Law of the Sea Convention and the Salvage Convention,” said John Morris, Chairman and CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration.

“By properly arresting all three of these sites in U.S. Federal Court, we have shown that we respect the rule of law. The Court has assumed jurisdiction over the sites and Odyssey will work with the Court to protect the historical and archaeological value of the sites. After detailed research, we are now prepared to provide information about the sites to the Judge in each case, and it is the Judge who will decide which information is appropriate for release to any potential claimants,” said Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Co-founder. “We continue to hope that Spain will recognize that we are acting in good faith and that we remain ready to cooperate with the Spanish Government on any sites that we discover that may involve Spanish heritage.”

All complaints and motions were filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

About Odyssey Marine Exploration

Odyssey Marine Exploration is a Publicly Traded US Company with several shipwreck projects in various stages of development throughout the world. Additional information about Odyssey, the “Black Swan” project, and the Company’s other activities is available at www.shipwreck.net

Odyssey Marine Exploration believes the information set forth in this Press Release may include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. Certain factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are set forth in “Risk Factors” in the Part I, Item 1A of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — (MARKET WIRE) — May 18, 2007 — The staff and crew of DEEP BLUE MARINE (PINKSHEETS: DPBM) are excited and pleased to offer its most sincere congratulations to ODYSSEY MARINE EXPLORATION on their announcement this morning of the recovery of hundreds of thousands of silver and gold coins as well as other significant artifacts from their Black Swan site in the Atlantic Ocean.

John Morris and all the staff and crew of ODYSSEY MARINE should be congratulated as again they have demonstrated the high degree of professionalism required to successfully survey and salvage a most important archaeological site. DEEP BLUE MARINE applauds their diligence and their discovery shows the importance of continuing support for those involved in the recovery and restoration of important archaeological sites. As we have always said, “There’s gold in them there hauls!” For more information contact media@alldeepblue.com.

RHS1 Members News

RHS1 would like to welcome two new Network members.

First welcome to Chuck and Linda Anderson of Boulder Creek Amethyst mine in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Their website will be up and running soon and will be our second website to join the RHS1 network. They also can now be found in the Network Forums. You can visit them at the Network Forums under “Thunder Bay”.

Secondly welcome to Jeff Allmond who has joined our Network Forums. Jeff will be making Google Earth Area maps for us to reference so if you would like a map made or would like to browse the ones he already has linked, be sure and visit him in the Network forums under “Rock Picks”.

We are redesigning RHS1 right now so you will soon be able to find the Network Websites without a problem. At the moment there are two Network Websites – Jack’s Place and Boulder Creek Amethyst.

If you have a club or a rockhound website and would like to be part of the Network Forums, or would like a forum, contact us for information about these features. We will explain more about that once our RHS1 updating is finished.

We would also like to welcome Black Cat Mining to our site merchants. If you are interested in Gold Prospecting, you will definitely want to browse their supplies. They are adding equipment all the time, too, so if you don’t see what you want right now, they might have it in stock later on.

That’s it for this month folks – don’t want to take up too much of your hunting time!

Rockin’ the Third Rock – and the 4th.

ROCKHOUND RECIPES & TIPS

“Trout en Papillote “

Trout en Papillote

Well ok not really, but pretty darn close. En Papillote means cooking in paper, which could be a problem when you are using a camp fire for your source of heat. But there is an easy way to enjoy this normally expensive restaurant meal when out in the wild. The cooking technique is a little different, but the results can be just as good.

This is a really simple version, which is what I like when cooking campfire meals. First you will naturally need a couple of Trout. Brook, Brown, or Rainbow will work. In fact any fish you have will work as long as it’s not fatty. If you are using something like Salmon be sure you trim any fat off first.

Cut Aluminum foil large enough to lay the fish on it and still be able to fold it over the fish and seal the edges.

Next lay the fish on the foil, skin side down.

Place 3 or 4 pats of butter on the fish.

Slice the green onions very fine and cover the fish with them. Sprinkle the lemon juice onto the fish.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fold the foil over the fish and tightly seal all the edges.

Place the foil pouch on the fire or coals and cook for around 30 minutes.

As with anything you are cooking on a campfire the cooking time will depend on how hot the fire or coals are.

The fish is done when it flakes off the skin.

About Thom…

Thom Meyer is a retired professional chef who has a degree in Culinary Arts – Also an avid camper and most importantly a person who likes to eat. Lately he has been involved in marketing and building websites when not using WordPress for them, a process of which in some circles he is considered an authority. Among his many websites that he maintains are www.recipes-4-all.com and www.wp-revealed.com

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”
Hunter S. Thompson

Treasure maps in history

Map created by Robert Lewis Stevenson in Treasure Island

Pirates

Although buried pirate treasure is a favorite literary theme, there are very few documented cases of pirates actually burying treasure, and no documented cases of a historical pirate treasure map. One documented case of buried treasure involved Francis Drake who buried Spanish gold and silver after raiding the mule train at Nombre de Dios – after Drake went to find his ships, he returned six hours later and retrieved the loot and sailed for England. Drake did not create a map. Another case in 1720 involved British Captain Stratton of the Prince Eugene who, after supposedly trading rum with pirates in the Caribbean, buried his gold near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. One of his crew, Morgan Miles, turned him into the authorities, and it is assumed the loot was recovered. In any case, Captain Stratton was not a pirate, and made no map.

The pirate most responsible for the legends of buried pirate treasure was Captain Kidd. The story was that Kidd buried treasure from the plundered ship Quedah Merchant on Gardiners Island near Long Island New York before being arrested and returned to England, where he was put through a very public trial and killed. Although much of Kidds treasure was recovered from various people who had taken possession of it before Kidds arrest (such as his wife and various others who were given it for safe keeping), there was so much public interest and fascination with the case at the time, speculation grew that a vast fortune remained and that Kidd had secretly buried it. Captain Kidd did bury a small cache of treasure on Gardiner’s Island in a spot known as Cherry Tree Field; however, it was removed by Governor Bellomont and sent to England to be used as evidence against him. Over the years many people have tried to find the supposed remnant’s of Kidd’s treasure on Gardiners Island and elsewhere, but none has ever been found.

Over the years many people have claimed to have discovered maps and other clues that lead to pirate treasure, or claim that historical maps are actually treasure maps. These claims are not supported by professional scholars.

El Dorado

In 1595, the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh set out for the legendary city, El Dorado. Naturally, the city was never found but Raleigh wrote at length about his venture to South America in which he claims to have come within close proximity of “the great Golden Citie of Manoa (which the Spanyards call El Dorado).” Despite the fact that his narrative was quite unrealistic it described a tribe of headless people his reputation commanded such respect that other cartographers apparently used Raleigh’s map as a model for their own. Cartographer Jodocus Hondius included El Dorado in his 1598 map of South America, as did Dutch publisher Theodore de Bry. The city remained on maps of South America until as late as 1808 and spawned numerous unsuccessful hunts for the city.

Now RHS1 cannot mention El Dorado with quoting Stan Grist because Stan claims he knows were it is!

“I have been exploring and prospecting for most of my life. I have been fortunate and have learned to find gold quite easily now after many years of trial and error. However, the re-discovery of El Dorado is one of the best three discoveries of my entire life.”

Stan Grist.

Stan Grist.
Click the image above to discover more

MEET THE MEMBERS…

This month RHS1 would like to introduce you all to member Brooks Dillard of www.yuprocks.com. Brooks has some interesting rock hounding background – and a pretty kewl website, too. We thought you might find him as interesting as we do. With that said – here’s Brooks to tell you how he got involved with the rocks addiction we all know so well.

I grew up in Syracuse, New York with the change of the seasons and lake effect winter storms. I currently reside in sunny and hot Phoenix, AZ and am a Geologist and Engineer In-Training for an Environmental Engineering firm. I work for the mining group so am involved in a wide array of different projects; core drilling, soil sampling, groundwater sampling, surficial geologic mapping, surface water hydrology, and an assortment of other fun projects which expose me to the southwest outdoors while giving me the chance to play with some interesting technologies in the office.

After high school I attended Calvin College which is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By random chance I ended up taking Intro to Geology. I couldn’t believe how much I loved the stuff and soon after ended up majoring in it. Sometime in my Junior year our department purchased a digital camera. I had always been fascinated by the internet and had begun playing around with HTML coding in the Geology Lab in my spare time. Eventually I thought it would be fun to post pictures of the Calvin Geology department’s collection on the internet; I then began photographing minerals and studying HTML.

Azurite:Click image to enlarge.
Image credit: www.yuprocks.com

The first result was a website on a free hosting service (with popups gallore…ugh!) entitled “Mountainbuilder Rocks and Minerals.” After graduating and working in the industry for a few years I decided to redesign the website and purchase its own domain and pay for hosting. That’s what became YupRocks.com

There is a short story behind why I chose that name which most people find pretty humorous – see it here see it here Over time I engaged in many more photographing sessions and have been adding images to the website as I’m able. We currently display around 150 specimens and over 400 pictures. Photographing minerals is a lot of fun.

Rosasite:Click image to enlarge.
Image credit: www.yuprocks.com

The best part of it is using a digital camera that has a great zooming function on it and can take high resolution pictures. The camera lense can creep in on some amazing aspects of different specimens that the naked eye can’t pick up as well. See the following links for examples of some closeups I’m really proud of:

There are some hardcore mineral photographers out there that make a nice living out of photographing minerals. The crazy thing is, anyone can do it, and do it relatively well given the current technologies with digital cameras. Even with my amature photography collection, I’ve been published in books, magazines, and articles. Any one of you readers can do the same if you wanted to. The important part is to have fun!